th
the threshing, you have seen him take the fanning-mill, and perhaps you
have turned the crank for him, while he has slowly shoveled the grain
into the mill and the chaff was being blown away by the wind set in
motion by the revolution of the large fanning wheel. In the olden times
they did not have fanning-mills, but when the farmer desired to separate
the chaff from the wheat, he did it with a fan. He poured the grain from
one basket or box, or some other receptacle, into another while the wind
was blowing, or else used a fan to create a draught of wind to blow the
chaff, and thus separate it from the wheat. It is this ancient custom to
which John the Baptist refers. He says, concerning Christ, "Whose fan is
in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His
wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire." (Matthew iii: 12.)

So God designs to separate from your character, and from mine, that
which is worldly and temporal, and worthless so far as eternity is
concerned. Take money as an illustration. Now money is essential, and it
is well that we should be willing to work hard for it, and that we
should be economical in its use, and seek to save our money so that we
may use it for good purposes, and that it may be helpful to us in old
age. Money serves a very excellent purpose while we are upon earth, but
God does not mean that we should make it the chief aim of our life.
Therefore, to divert our minds from money in one way or another,
financial reverses and failures sometimes come, and thus God seeks to
separate the man from the money. We all came into this world
empty-handed, and we must go out of it empty-handed. Even though we were
worth many millions of dollars we could take no money with us. You might
place it in the coffin and bury it with a dead body, but it would not
and could not go into eternity with the man's undying spirit.

Now, after the farmer has separated the chaff from the wheat, he gathers
the wheat into his garner, or into his granary; and so, after God has
separated from our nature and character all that is of no use, which is
simply earthy, He will gather our souls into heaven, His garner above.

While we live upon the earth we should use the things of this world but
not abuse them; remembering that finally we must go and leave everything
behind us, and that we can take nothing with us into eternity except the
characters which we formed here. Weal